Sep. 4, 2013

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Hail by the Augustana campus. / @schmidtaustin

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Trees were knocked over, cars were dented, windows were broken and roofs were damaged Saturday night during one of the worst hail storms to hit Sioux Falls in more than 10 years, according to National Weather Service meteorologists.

Much of the damage was concentrated in southwest Sioux Falls in the area near The Empire Mall. A tent was mangled beyond repair, and the Target store in the Empire East mall was forced to shut down because of storm damage.

Sioux Falls Ford was hit hard by the storm, which saw hail in excess of 2 inches in diameter fall in the city. According to the car dealership’s General Sales Manager Kevin Rost, most of the cars and trucks on the lot suffered at least some damage.

“There’s very few that don’t have damage,” Rost said. “It’s just good the windows didn’t get knocked out.”

As many as 900 vehicles suffered damage, Rost said. He didn’t have an estimate of what the damage will cost in the end, because it is still being assessed.

Much of the cost of damage caused by the storm is in the process of being calculated. Tuesday morning was a busy time for insurance agents such as Dick Applequist, president of Prins Insurance. He said his office saw a big spike in calls for everything from roof and siding damage to cars.

Applequist said the last time he had seen as much damage after a hail storm was in June 2001.

“That storm, June 12, 2001, all the insurance companies didn’t like it very well. Sixty percent of the houses needed to be reroofed,” Applequist said.

The Target store was able to reopen to customers Monday morning, according to company spokeswoman Jessica Deede.

The storm was amplified by an event known by meteorologists as a microburst, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Brad Temeyer. He said microbursts are caused when falling rain or hail rapidly cools warm air, which becomes less dense and also begins to fall. That cool air gains speed as it falls and essentially bursts when it hits the ground, causing very high wind speeds.

“That’s the reason we saw the damage,” Temeyer said.

Temeyer said the NWS measured wind speeds as high has 78 mph in the atmosphere and estimated wind speeds on the ground as high as 80 mph.